A Thousand Paper Cranes
by asylum regular
Summary: She was dying, wasting away before his eyes. He could do nothing but watch as the disease ate at her. She folded a thousand paper cranes and wished. One wish, one last hope. Drabble length, may do more if asked nicely. (edited and bettered)


**AN: Kay this is going to be a slightly fluffy oneshot about Kagome and Sesshomaru. Warning you now, Kagome dies. I don't have anything against her… okay so I have some things but not enough to make me hate her! This hit me like a train when I was reading Inuyasha/ Full metal Alchemist crossovers… Yeah, it came out of nowhere. This may make some people cry, others may scoff, and others still may hate me. I have an interesting tidbit for you: I DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT! So keep your snarky little comments to yourself. Last thing: If you ask really nicely, I may do a chapter about how they fell in love and other such things. Maybe even a chapter about their daughter if I feel like it.**

_**Words: 1,531**_

_A Thousand Paper Cranes_

He was weak, helpless even. He could not save her from this; he could ease her pain only very slightly. She was suffering and all he could do was watch as the disease ate at her, as her smiles were traded for grimaces of pain. Her once shining blue eyes had lost the life in them and she seemed but a shell of the Kagome he loved. But even like this, he would do anything for her, be anything for her. Dogs were not known for their loyalty but he found that he had never wanted another. And if he did, the mere thought of her disappointed and heartbroken face kept him far away. He absently watched her as she folded the paper again and again making paper crane after crane. She had told him that is she folded a thousand paper cranes then she would have one wish granted. So he gave her all the paper she would need and watched her work, his silent presence soothed her slightly. She seemed more at ease the closer he was, the physician saying something about his youkai dulling the pain very slightly. So he stayed as close as was possible, humanly or otherwise. Even a little pain gone was still pain gone.

_**One wish,**_

It had been 3 days since then; the physician had told him that she would pass before sunset today. He glared at the sun as it sunk from its position high in the sky, it must have been around noon. He had but a few hours with her, he was sure they would be the most painful hours of his life. He silently cursed the shorter days the winter had, along with the cold weather. With the cold weather came a slew of sicknesses, among them the one that was currently taking her from him. Tuberculosis, as she called it. What made it even worse was that in her time, she could be treated, she could be saved. But the well had closed after her decision to stay here, with him. So close, and yet so far at the same time, infuriatingly close. He watched her as she sat in his lap, diligently folding the delicate cranes. Her eyes were sunken in, dark bags under them, and her skin was now a pale ashy grey. Her forehead was perpetually hot as her body tried in vain to fight off the disease attacking her, and she always had a thin layer of sweat from the extra heat. She winced and he automatically searched for the reason, a small cut on her finger bleeding only slightly. A paper cut. Now he couldn't even protect her from paper, oh how the mighty Sesshomaru had fallen.

_**One last hope,**_

The sun touched upon the horizon as she finished the last crane. "I want Sesshomaru to be happy" her voice was so quiet he wasn't sure she had actually said anything. She turned slightly and gave him a smile that he would never forget. Despite her sickened appearance, in that moment, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever set eyes upon. Her eyes regaining the healthy sparkle that he had missed and all the love she felt for him conveyed in that one momentary glance. He watched as she tensed then slumped in his arms, shudders wracking her small frame as her body shut down rapidly. He held her to his chest and cradled her, gently brushing the hair out of her face with a clawed hand, as she breathed her last. The sun quietly sinking below the horizon behind him.

_**Selfless till the end.**_

A great roar was ripped through him as he held the quickly cooling body of his beloved mate. The shoji door opened, revealing a girl with glistening silver hair like her father's and stunning blue eyes like her mother. She softly closed the door behind her as she took in the heart wrenching scene before her. soundlessly padding towards him across the tatami mats with tears streaming down her face as she crouched next to him. She clenched her fists and cried unashamedly. Her own mournful cry rising to meet his as they howled their loss to the setting sun. _'She is gone' _they seemed to say, the room bathed in a bloody red from the sunset.

_**Lost in the wind,**_

Her burial was today. She was going to be laid to rest in the family crypt; her coffin was next to his brothers. The one on the other side of her empty, waiting for him to one day be laid there next to his mate. The place was dark and morbid, with the scent of decay in the air; it did not suit her at all. She would have rather been buried underneath her favorite sakura tree in the corner of her garden. He did not think he would be able to make it through the entire ceremony, but he went anyways. The thought of having to say his final good bye was horrifying. He knew for a fact that he would come back after the ceremony, after all the people had gone, and grieve in his own way. Never really saying goodbye, never ready to actually let her go. So he stood next to her coffin and gently laid his slightly calloused hand upon it, silently saying goodbye before he left. Everyone pretended not to notice the unshed tears in his eyes.

_**Out of my reach.**_

He idly thought back to the first time that they had met. She had amazed him then and had continued to do so nearly every time they met. He was astounded by her beauty and the natural grace in the way she walked. He found himself entranced by the small miko who could be smiling and compliant one moment yet shouting and furious the next. He had attacked his half brother for his father's fang, or so they thought. The real reason behind his visits was the raven haired spit fire that had melted the ice around his heart. If the burning passion he felt towards her wasn't love then he didn't know what was. If had taken days after the defeat of that vile hanyou for him to build up the courage to ask to court her. He had courted her for 2 long years, showering her with gifts and all the affection he knew how to give. He had finally mated her and it had been the best decision he had ever made. He wouldn't give up the happy years he had spent with her for all of Edo. He thought of the way her soft delicate hands had felt in his larger, calloused ones. She had been an enigma, a puzzle, something he had never been able to understand.

_**Forever in my heart.**_

He had taken to fully immersing himself in his work these past few, long, years. He wouldn't… no, couldn't, look his daughter in those bright blue eyes of hers. She didn't hate him for it, she understood. Her father had loved her mother more than anything in the entire world and when she died so did part of him. For his mother he had changed his ways, he had become more caring, more inclined to speak. He would have given up his position as Lord of the Western Lands had she even mentioned that she tired of all the silks and balls. He would have given his entire life for her. Their love had been deep, one did not heal from the loss of one's love over night. It had taken 3 months for her father to be able to be in the same room as her. But that one fateful night _he_ had come to _her_ and apologized for ignoring her, for being an awful father. She found that she couldn't hate him, couldn't hate him anymore than she could hate her mother for leaving her. Just like her mother was not at fault for dying, her father was not at fault for withdrawing from her.

_**My love,**_

So she helped him when he began folding paper cranes. She sat by and watched when he sat up late into the night folding and folding like her mother had done so many times. She bandaged his hands when he kept on going even after getting dozens of paper cuts. She knew why her mother had wished for him to be happy; she had known that not even a miracle would save her own life. But her mother had known that her father would need that wish far more than her. So she stood strong and did not cry when the physician announced that her father was being eaten away by the same disease that had taken her mother. She did cry, however, when he used the wish the thousand paper cranes had earned him to wish for his daughters happiness before he breathed his last, desperately hoping that one of the Takashi family would finally get a happily ever after. She howled her loss to the world for a second time as the same lonely sun sank below the horizon. _'I am alone' _she seemed to say, the red light of the sunset glinting of her brilliant silver hair.

_**For you I would fold a thousand paper cranes.**_

_A Thousand Paper Cranes_

One wish,

One last hope,

Selfless till the end.

Lost in the wind,

Beyond my reach.

Forever in my heart.

My love,

For you I would fold a thousand paper cranes.

~Asylum Regular

**AN: This may come as a surprise to you but when I went into this story I thought only Kagome would die, I had played around with the idea of them having a child but had declined it. Somewhere along the way this story developed a life of its own and completely changed whatever course I had set for it… not that I'm complaining. My muse works in odd ways *shrugs* If you have questions about the story feel free to message me! **

**Remember: The story idea is mine, the plot line is mine, the poem within the story is mine, but Inuyasha is not! **


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